Straw-cutter



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM A. MORGAN, OF HOME, TENNESSEE.

STRAW-C'UTTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 224,104, dated February 3, 1880.

Application filed October 25, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. MORGAN, of Home, in the county of Greene and State of Tennessee, have invented a new and valuable Improvement in Straw-Gutters; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being bad to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a representation ofa longitudinal vertical section of my improved straw-cutter, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same.

This invention has relation to improvements in straw and hay cutters; and the nature of the invention consists in the construction and novel arran gementof the devices used, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the annexed drawings, the letter Adesi gnates a hopper of ordinary construction, supported by legs B, and having an inclined bottom, 0. A indicates a transverse shaft extending across the bottom of the hopper near its lower end, and having suitable bearings in the sides thereof. This shaft carries at one end a bevel-gear wheel, a, and at the other is provided with a crank, a. It has also a pinion, b, the object of which will hereinafter appear. V

The bevel-gear a engages a similarbevelgear, 0, upon a shaft, D, having its bearings in the side of the hopper and arranged in the same plane, but at right angles to the shaft A aforesaid. i

The shaft D has keyed upon its end, in the usual way, a balance-wheel, B, that also serves to carry the cutting-blades, and consists of a hub, a rim, and spokes connecting them. The spokes are of curved form, as shown, and spring from opposite sides of the hub, forming together the shape of the letter 8. Upon the face of this wheel, adjacent to the end of the hopper, are formed the offsets d d, the one being at or near the hub and the other near the rim, but both preferably upon the spokes. To these offsets are secured in any suitable manner, usually by screws, the cutting blades or knives O, which are of curved form, and have sharpened convex edges 0. These knives stand off from the balance-wheel, and when the said wheel is rotated graze the end of the hopper, barely clearing it. These knives act with a drawcut upon the straw, commencing at that side of the hopper farthest from the hub of the balance-wheel and ending at the side nearest thereto.

The cutting of the knives is first at their outer ends, gradually changing to their middle portions, and then to the heel as the wheel rotates, the effect of which is that the entire length of said knives is utilized, and no part of the cutting-edge is used, and consequently dulled and worn away, more than the remainder.

The tendency of the cut from side to side of the hopper is to aggregate the straw at the side of the said hopper toward which the out approaches, the effect of which is to increase the elfort necessary to divide or sever the straw as the cut is about to terminate, and to put additional strain upon the knives. This defect is corrected by a pressure and feed roller, G, having its bearings in the sides of the hopper, and provided with a large gearwheel, g, upon the end of one of its journals, that engages the pinion b of shaft 'A. This roller is provided with a number of projecting metallic flanges, f, having'their edges formed in undulations, as shown. These consist, alternately, of concave depressions i and ridges '13 between each of said depressions, and the flanges are so formed that the depression in one flange is in line with the ridges of the next. By this means the straw is not only fed to the cutters, but is divided into two or more bundles or wisps, which are held stationary by the flanges and successively divided.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-'- In a hay or straw cutter, the combination, with a hopper, A, the transverse shaft A, journaled thereon, and provided with the bevel-gear a and pinion I), the longitudinal shaft D, having the bevel-gear c and carrying the balance-wheel B, the curved blades 0, secured to offsets (Z d of said wheel, and the feed and pressure roller G, having the gearwheel g, and provided with the flanges f, having alternate concave depressions and ridges i 1' as specified.

In testimony that I claim the above I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM AMBISIAH MORGAN.

Witnesses:

D. KooN'rz, JACOB MIX. 

